NIGHT MOVES, 1964

The sun nesting now in the evergreens, the caravan of hotrods, sedans, and pick-ups squeezing like a ribbon of toothpaste through the ticket gates, inching past the billboardmarquee, and rolling on into the promised land ofDrive-In Movie World… two-hundred-tinny-loudspeakersstrong, Perry Como warning, “Don’t let the stars get inyour eyes”… passenger doors releasing starry-eyedJuliets for last-minute powder-room primps, andsomebody’s jack-in-the-box trunk popping free the ‘wetbacks’within: hormonal young Mercutios bearing six-packs ofSchlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous just theticket for taking the edge off a festering cat-scratch-feveritch, or to weaken m’lady’s star-crossed resolve to protesttoo much… Romeos mounting metallic speakers ondriver’s-side windows, eyeing the rear-view mirrors,currying combs through Brylcreem-emulsifiedpompadours, giving their little penthouses-on-wheels thefinal once-over… horns honking, headlights flashing Let’s getthis show on the road… ladies returning now, slidingdaintily back in, all Sandra-Dee seductive, andthe heady mix of Ambush and Mennen making every frontseat a toxic and tender trap… and by then it’s ol’ Dino’sturn, setting the scene with, “When the moon hitsyour eye like a big pizza pie, that’s… amoré!”